Wednesday, December 19, 2012

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Mitzi Linn's Gallery on Facebook

Oasis #1...gouache painting....click on image to go to gallery posts....

"Wild Wisdom Highway"-- A memoir type blog by Mitzi Linn

Clik on the foto of Mitzi reading Tarot to go to Wild Wisdom Highway, my blog with stories and poems from the various paths, backroads and highways of my life. My goal was to have an enriching spirit life this time around. You know, really live in the present.

Information about Mitzi's artwork

You can see other examples of my artwork and order on line from my gallery in Eugene. They have prints and paintings and can contact me about work you might be looking for. Thanks.

Womantrees Dancing: Divas--by Mitzi Linn

Painting available at Sattva Gallery. Click on painting to go to Sattva Gallery, Mitzi's work under paintings.

Coyote Woman Reviews her first 50 Years--painting by Mitzi Linn

Coyote Woman is looking in the mirror communicating with her animal alter ego. They are reviewing the woman's interests, activities and beliefs of the first half of her lifetime. She stands on a carpet meant to evoke the Mexican boardgame La Lotteria but it is really a tapete of her personal and Mexican images. In the background are the mountains and vegetation of the Oaxaca Valley. The feathered serpent, fire and water serpents, serve as a borders.

Earth Song

Mitzi at Opening of exhibition "Following the Feathered Serpent"

Artist is wearing her favorite Tehuana huipil

Mitzi's Magical Paintings in Gouache

Natural beauty has always inspired and nurtured me. I express that beauty in paintings of symbolic landscapes alluding to actual places on the planet. The warm, vibrant colors I use energize the viewer’s spirit. I paint human bodies as part of landscapes because we humans are part of the earth. I think of them as sacred landscapes. Living in Oaxaca, Mexico, inspired me to paint seriously. I had to paint my impressions and feelings inspired by that ancient, culturally rich area. It was in Oaxaca I rediscovered that quality of life that allowed me time to really look at things, take them in, absorb them, and interact internally with them. My paintings come from that interaction of self and world. Many of my series of paintings were birthed in Oaxaca--the Oaxacascapes, the Day of the Dead Series and the tropical landscapes, the Banana Leaf Series. Spending time in New Mexico, Arizona and other parts of the Southwest near the border inspired the “Borderlands Series”. I try to communicate that the Border region with Mexico includes the same cultures--Native American and Hispanic in similar landscapes. People, cultures and objects native to this continent flowed through this region since time immemoriable. I paint in gouache, a non-plastic water color. It is a traditional medium used historically by many fine artists including Chagall, Rivera, and others. I am mostly self taught as a painter and developed my own way of using gouache over time. Interest in Ancient American cultures, studies of African Dance, Tantric Art, practicing Tibetan Buddhist and general study of symbols and mythology gives me a deep understanding of multi-cultural and universal images. I honor the Feminine as the source of my inspiration, and spiritual feminism as the basis the Bananaleaf Series and Womantrees Dancing.

Coyote Woman's Tree of Life

New apartment photo

My apartment is like a little gallery or museum. Fun to live in.

Line of the Spirit Weaving--Design by Richard Enzer

Click on this image to read about Richard and the Line of the Spirit

Line of the Spirit and Richard Enzer

Richard's designs and colors really influenced my choice of color and symbols when I started painting. He was part of my life in Oaxaca. I am grateful I live with some of his beautiful weaving designs made by people in Teotitlan del Valle.

Photo of Mitzi in San Cristobal 2009

Kiki took this photo using my throwaway camera.

Reyna buying ingredients for sopa in the Teotitlan Market

Foto by Jesus Canadiense (Bill Blair)

Liliana Mendoza Rios Weaving a Rug.

She's 11 years old. Her father is Tito Mendoza, a master weaver.

Tito Mendoza and Ale Rios in the US ( El Nahual Gallery in Oaxaca)

Participating in textile conference Minnesota

Pumpkin Carving in Oaxaca

By Sven Borough at a restaurant

Tea Time

Mosiac by Jane Kelly

Grave in Oaxaca City cemetery for Day of the Dead

Popular art provided by a famiy.

Altar at Edmundo Montano family

Day of the Dead celebration

Tapete de Arena--Sand Painting

Another art form for Todos Santos

Day of the Dead: Adam and Eve--painting by Mitzi Linn

Here are humanity's parents beneath a cactus tree, talking to a serpent. I painted this as an altar piece, including many symbols--the sun, the moon, the ancestors skeletons and marigolds for the Day of the Dead. Inspired by many different things.

Day of the Dead Altar at Maude Kerns(Eugene), 2003

Created by Mitzi Linn--called Pensando en la Muerte.

Frida's Salsa

A collage by Mitzi Linn

Guadelupe: the Corn Dancer--painting by Mitzi Linn

The Virgin of Guadelupe here is represented by a Dancer in a handwoven huipil. She appears from outer space, enclosed in a mantle of light, dancing with and offering the first three ears of sacred corn from the harvest. Four open white flowers in the four directions represent the souls of ancestors who are now stars. Being a virgin goddess she is shown dancing in the sliver of the new moon, as it appears in Oaxaca.

Mexico Mix

Collage by Mitzi Linn

Day of the Dead Altar in Eugene for Migrant Workers in 1997

Mitzi Linn and Vicky Ayers at Due Fine Arts

Frida's Bouquet

Collage by Mitzi Linn

Amor Sin Palabras by Mitzi Linn

The Teotitlan bus rushes thru the Campo Santo.

Mitzi on way to Altamont Concert

I fell in love with Oaxaca Mexico in 1982 and had the good fortune to delve deeply into the culture, art and spirit of this beautiful place over the past decades. The quality of light, the friendships with Oaxacans, the fiestas, the customs, the folk art and weavings, the music, the fine art, the cuisine, the ancient indigenous ruins/sites, and the breathtaking vistas--all inspired me to start painting again. Study of myths, religions, ethnic art, ancient cultures and history integrated with initiations and practice of the Mystic Arts, Buddhism and Spiritual Feminism informs the images and symbols I use. I received a BA in Liberal Arts from Hanover College.

Fruit Stall at the Benito Juarez Market

My Mother, Mabel, as a young woman

Cacao beans, cinnamon, sugar, ground together makes fresh chocolate for fiestas. It's a sacred drink, served as hot chocolate to people invited to family celebrations. (photo by Karla Rice)

Medicine Mountains Talking--painting by Mitzi Linn

The mother/father sacred mountains of Oaxaca are discussing making medicine for their children, the humans and others. Below them is a carpet of stylised stars, the milky way and venus, in what is an abstration of a frieze at nearby Mitla. Perhaps their medicine is a sacred song or chant that calls the ancient knowers to help them find the right medicine for our modern world.

El Nahual en El Dia de los Muertos

Ale and Liliana in front of their altar

Links to sites I follow

Here are links to exceptional sites for studying the Mayans and other Mesoamerican ancient cultures. Check out all the links. There are really good explanations of the Mayan calendar--and much, much more!www.mayaexploration.orgwww.famsi.org

Bugambillas

Remembering Oaxaca

Horselovers--painting by Mitzi Linn

Will summer ever come to Oregon?

Mitzi Linn in San Francisco 1969

Dreamtime--time to reinvent myself.

Desert Inspiration

Painting by Mitzi Linn

Beneath the Peak

Painting by Mitzi Linn

White House Ruins

The one place non-Navajo tourists can visit without a guide at the bottom of Canyon de Chelly

Waterhorse (Painting by Mitzi Linn

The blue horse is the Navajo horse of healing, water, spirit, and tourquoise.

Womanscape--painting by Mitzi Linn

Like many of my painting series, the Banana Leaf Series started in Oaxaca. Here women's bodies are part of the earth.

Teotitlan del Valle's Church

The Spanish constructed their church on top of the ancient Zapotec Temple complex. The Zapotecs settled the Oaxaca valley in 6000 B.C. Teotitlan (Xaguire) was one of the first pueblos and seat of early Zapotec rulers.

Feathered Serpent climbs the Tree of Life--First Fruits (corn)

Gouache painting inspired by meeting the Feathered Serpent at various sacred old sites in Mexico, including Teotihuacan, Tonina, Palenque, and Mitla

Calla Lillies in Blue Vase

Painting by Mitzi Linn

Books and Blogs

The Ancient Americas Breaking Newswebsite by Micheal Ruggeri

Maya Cosmos--Three Thousand years on the Shaman's Pathby David Freidel*Linda Schele*Joy Parker

Unpublished Manuscripts by Mitzi Linn

Mi Querida OaxacaA collection of stories, journals, poems and images from living in Oaxaca part-time over the past 20 years.

We Put Our Bones TogetherAn edited collection of poems from several decades. The chapbook moves from highly personal poems to those with a philosophical/spiritual perspective. Some poems in the blog are in this collection

Wild Wisdom HighwayA group of stories from my various lifetimes within this life. It is a kind of memoir, where stories collage and interact with each other. In process.